Page:Egyptian self-taught (Arabic) (1914).djvu/68

62 round native windows. Shorbah (properly shorbat), a drink (Eng. "sherbet"), is another derivative from this root. The past participle of a verb is also regularly formed, and can be used like an adjective.

The intransitive verb is made transitive by doubling the medial letter; thus, shaghal, he worked; shaghghal, he made to work.

The impersonal form is constantly used as it is in French, and is formed by prefixing the sound of yit. Yítfáteh, it is opened (compare Il s'ouvre in French); yitghísil, it is washed.

Auxiliary Verbs. One is not troubled in Egyptian with many moods and tenses. One tense—the present—serves also for the future; the past tense is uniformly constructed from the root, and the auxiliary verbs to have and to be are represented by one form of auxiliary, which is here given and is typical of the inflections of all verbs:—